Chapter 84

Introduce

I eventually accepted Adam’s offer. The details on how the duration of cooperation would be, how many experience points should be shared, and other things were agreed to be decided later on. For now, he expressed his intention to follow me for now.

“The point is important, but I have an interest in Awakened, such as you. You’re a research-worthy subject.”

“What? You said you were planning to return home. Can you extend it like this as you wish?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Won’t the advising professor come after you? Since the graduate student, who was supposed to assist him or her run away. Perhaps, is this avoidance of graduation?”

“I’m not a graduate student!” he negated with annoyance and murmured, “And, why do I assist them? They should assist me.”

Anyways, there seemed to be no problem on the part of him extending his stay on Earth. I had contacted Secretary Kim beforehand, and his quarters were prepared in the office house. A few days later, by the request of Adam, who said that he hated dealing with bothersome things, sneaked us into the house by activating [Stealth]. It was because the reporters that arrived before us had crowded the place like a wall of men.

‘Well, it is indeed newsworthy.’

In my announcement that I would import a foreign SSS-Rank hunter to South Korea and that I would sign him up to the guild, the Hunter Management Department reacted enthusiastically. To accommodate the two of us, they were ready to send a private jet and lay a red carpet on the military airport. Today, as we arrived in the country, the government gave their best to disperse the information to the media. It was a speed that the Celestial Dragon PR team should learn from.

“I have arrived.”

Secretary Kim, who was waiting for me, bowed, “Welcome, Guild Master,” Joyfully, a smile hung on his lips. His gaze moved to Adam, who was beside me, “You brought back a very large present.”

“This man, he knows how to speak Korean.”

“Eh, really?”

It wasn’t even translation magic, and I don’t know how he did it, but for now, Abrams said he could speak most of the language that exists on Earth. Secretary Kim said while looking at him admiringly, at the body of almost 3 meters in height that had the muscle mass beyond human limits, “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Kim Byeong-Ho. You can call me Secretary Kim, for convenience.”

“It’s a pleasure.”

Secretary Kim led us to the room that Adam would use.

“We prepared every piece of furniture by specially having it made.”

The unique furniture, adjusted to the size of the 3-meter giant, was perfectly prepared in the room. I didn’t expect that it would be this prepared in that short time.

‘Anyways, he’s really good at his job.’

I said while facing Secretary Kim, “You’ve worked hard.”

“It’s nothing. Actually, we did newly prepare the furniture, the house structure may be somewhat uncomfortable to Mr. Abrams, so I was thinking of building a new building that extends to the house.

Indeed, considering the height of the ceiling and the entrance, that would seem better.

“Proceed with it as you wish.”

“Alright, understood.”

Adam could change his body to a smaller state than he was right now if necessary, but it was not only uncomfortable; if he maintained that state, it applied too much pressure on the ‘things’ that were inside him right now. Due to those reasons, he was maintaining a larger body compared to regular humans.

“How about Nate and Hibiki?”

“They’re in the basement training room.”

The two of them had left the accommodation and transferred here after I inaugurated as the Guild Master. After I opened the door, their gazes fixed on me.

“Jin-Wook!” Nate joyfully exclaimed, while running towards me, “You have arrived?”

Hibiki calmly greeted us.

“Hmm? How much heritage do you really own?” It was Adam who said that, seeing the tattoo on Nate’s neck as he came in. Of course, he recognized it in a glance.

“I do have a few.”

The female being connected with the tattoo, shaped of blue Mana, floated on top of Nate’s head. The spirit glanced at me indifferently then took it back.

The artificial intelligence, which kept its silence if nothing serious was going on, was also an item related to the Sebrarian Empire.

“Then, let’s introduce one another.”

I introduced them to each other. Nate, who was looking at the overwhelmingly sized giant with his jaw dropped, and Hibiki, who showed a slightly wavering gaze, as she realized his identity of that of an SSS-Ranked hunter.

“I was observing you from outside. Looking at how you use your skill, Hibiki, I think you’ll need another promotion review soon, right?”

A slight flush appeared on her cheeks. Hibiki’s active Mana had already increased to an A-Rank state. The light of the core proved that she had given her best effort as her life depended on it.

At that moment, Nate butted in, “Jin-Wook! I learned to do a new thing in the meanwhile!” he opened his palm as if to show off. Then, after a little hesitation, “You said Mr. Adam is also an Awakened, right? He’s not normal, right?”

There is only one reason why he asks that.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then, now! Look at this!”

Swish!

A wind blew. In his shadows, a zombified orc sprung out of it.

“Hmm?!”

Then for the first time, Adam showed keen interest in the others being apart from me.

“Undead?”

Nate said enthusiastically, “If I were to explain how this works.”

As he rolled his eyes and looked at Hibiki, she snapped back with a loathing expression, unusually of her, “You try sending me that one more time! I’ll really kill you!”

Clearly, there had been confrontations while I was gone. They must have gotten that close to exchange those kinds of words to each other.

Anyways, ‘sending,’ was it? Comparing it to the memory of the past life, I understood what Nate was trying to do.

‘Ah, that one.’

On Hibiki’s strong reaction, Nate grumbled with a pouted mouth, “What a fuss, I’ve only pranked her once,” He turned his head and looked at me, “Now, look at this!”

Swish! A wind blew once again. The form of the Orc swayed like smoke and disappeared in an instant. And instead of Nate’s shadow swallowing it this time.

“It’s in my shadow?” I said while looking at the floor.

“What, you’re not surprised?” Nate scratched his head as if his excitement didn’t live up to his expectations.

Did I not react enough? Well, I’d already seen it in the past life, so I said, “Its senses are connected in this state, right?”

“Yes. Even if the Orc is inside the shadow, it can vaguely see the situation outside and hear. If I want, I can observe and listen as well.”

“And you can take it out of the shadow if you want?”

“Of course!”

It was obvious what kind of prank he pulled off on Hibiki with this.

“Taking advantage of the gap that she was focused on training [Multiple Cognition], you placed a zombie inside her shadow?”

“Woah, you know me really well!”

The zombie Orc was hidden in Hibiki’s shadow, in that state, and aiming for a window of opportunity when she went to the 2nd floor after finishing her practice, it had extended its half-decayed arm from the floor and grabbed Hibiki’s ankle hard, or so he said. Of course, Hibiki was very surprised.

“That’s why the windows and the internal materials of the second floor had been redone.

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s alright. To retaliate with magic by a reflex means that you’re trained that well.”

Because of the spell she poured out towards the zombie, the second floor was destroyed and needed a general repair.

I said to Nate, “But then, wouldn’t it be better to upgrade than to be satisfied in this state?”

He tilted his head, “How?”

“For now, you need the process of taking out a zombie then putting it back into another’s shadow. The path that it moves can be seen by normal people as well.”

“Well, Hibiki didn’t see it.”

She protested, “That was because I was concentrating!”

I nodded and said, “That’s right. But what if you develop a way that you can stealthily move the undead that nobody can notice them going into his or her shadow even if their eyes are wide open?”

Then Hibiki looked at me with a gaze full of betrayal. I protested with my hand.

“No, I didn’t mean it to be used to prank Hibiki but for actual situations. I think that it would increase its utility. How about in that way?” I say it like I just came up with this idea, “Nate, you’ll overlap your shadow with the opponents. In that state, shouldn’t your subordinate be able to move from your shadow to the others? Without having to reveal itself directly, that is,” And I added on to it, “Of course, I don’t know if it can work. I just thought that it could be an idea.”

Of course, it worked since it was a method used in the previous life.

“Huh? Somehow, I think that would work?!” Nate exclaimed with joy. Instead of moving his own body, he tilted his shadow itself a bit and overlapped with mine. He seemed to concentrate by frowning. And after some time had passed, “…. Hmm, it doesn’t work just yet. But I think it would work after some practice!”

It must be that his mastery was still low for it to be done, but it was only a matter of time. On the other hand, Hibiki made an expression like she was hating the parent and making an uncontrollable kid into a dangerous toy.

I added a few words for her, “And no more pranks on guild members.”

“Alright!” Just now, there seemed to be an awkward pause before he answered.

“Hmm.”

Adam, who was listening to our conversation interestingly until then, suddenly butted in, “Hey, you. You’re name’s Nate, right?”

With his shining eyes, he looked at Adam, “Yes?”

“The undead just now, wouldn’t you mind handing a few of them to me? It’s my first time seeing this kind of skill. I’m curious about the method they use to move. I want to perform some experiments on them.”

Was Nate’s unique skill a strange concept to Adam as well?

“Hmm. Well, it’s not impossible. There are lots of Orcs.”

Apart from Nate’s zombies categorizes as ‘friends,’ I think he didn’t have much attachment to undeads that he labeled as ‘subordinates.’ Even so, as he must have some hostile feelings to the words of the experiment, he hesitated to answer.

As if he misunderstood his reaction, Adam said, “Of course, not for free.”

The more I looked at him; I felt he was an alien that was very sensitive to mutual respect. Adam pondered for a while and transformed his right hand. The flesh became covered with red muscles and inflated to soon sprout up to about his kidney’s size. On the tip of his transformed hand revealed a nail in the form of a sharp sickle.

“Woah!” Nate looks at his arms with a bummed face.

“This is from upgrading the Giant Mantis’ front leg.”

What he mentioned was a powerful monster that came out in S-Class dungeons as a boss monster.

Nate shouted with glowing eyes, “No way, that’s super cool!”

Hibiki and I both said in a tone that it is incomprehensible in unison, “…Cool?”

Adam smiled and said, “If you want, I’ll transform your right hand like this. I have the material that is equivalent to a human arm just at the right…”

Nate raised his hand even before he could finish his words, “I want to do it! I’ll do it!”

“Hey, wait,” I had to intervene, “Explain to me how the modification works to me as well. And Nate, how can you accept it right away when someone offers you to transform your body like that!”

“Ah, right. I don’t like anything that hurts.”

Adam assured that he shouldn’t worry about it, “You won’t feel a thing,”

“Really?”

The alien continued as if to entice Nate, “In this nail, you can even store Mana in it. That means that it is equivalent to an artifact. Depending on how you use it, you can even win over an S-Class item…”

As if to react to what he said, the moment Adam injected Mana into the Giant Mantis’ claws, spontaneous telepathy resonated in the room.

– A danger element found against the protection subject!

The source of the mind wave was the blue spirit floating on top of Nate’s head.

“Again!”

Hibiki freaked out and unfolded protection magic. Nate also frowned and shouted at the spirit.

“Hey, you stupid…!”

At then, Swish!v A light flashed in the air, then a giant metal structure was summoned.

It was of a scale that would fill up the training room and the theater’s size. As if it were fixated in the air, the thing that floated was a large-caliber multi-round cannon that could shoot a thousand rounds of bullets at once. Once again, telepathy resonates.

– Warning! Warning! No further access is allowed. It would be responded with immediate firing in case of non-response…

I dispiritedly murmured, “… At least it doesn’t shoot right away this time, so it has learned something.”

Nate snapped back at the spirit on top of his head, “Hey, you stupid! How does this look like a dangerous situation!”

Adam, who was watching this mess, scratched his cheeks, “This is why this item was avoided. There are rare artifacts treated that way among the Imperial Heritages.”

He continued his words, having everyone’s attention, “The Empire shared knowledge and experience by connecting to the intellectual group network when it was on its high. Artificial intelligence controlled it like a baby. It’s not only bothersome for one to educate the concepts and objects one by one, but the protection is also programmed to be carried out first rather than processing other commands. It doesn’t abide by order of the master that well, and crucially, it’s an attribute item, so it can’t be traded; such a shitty…”

Nate looked at me with eyes full of betrayal.